Anyway, critiquing art is a practice like any other. Typically you describe, analyze, interpret, and evaluate a work. And then you can make a judgement/opinion (ie, I think this is good/bad). You can use a criteria, or scope, to hone your critique. You might focus on historical president of a certain style, technical execution and skill, novelty in the space the work is presented, etc. It’s up to you. You can critique art based on any criteria you want really, though don’t tell some of my old professors that.
For example, I’ll critique this piece by Jessica Brilli. My criteria will focus on Brilli’s use of placement and how that is used to evoke an emotional response. This will be a short critique and one aspect of the work.
Description: A medium sized oil/acrylic painting depicting a late mid century van parked on a beach with the ocean in the background, with a beach chair next to it. The palette is mainly warm, muted pastel pinks and browns, with the ocean a shade of cyan. The sky takes up most of the composition, while the van, ocean, chair, and ground take up the bottom third. The painting is linear, with minimal visible brushstrokes.
Analysis: The ocean provides a clear boundary between sky and land. Its cool color also provides a contrast to the rest of the palette. The van breaks this boundary. Its windows provide a view of the sky while framing it in smaller vignettes, where the artist changes the colors slightly to emulate tinted glass. Whereas the vans dark color contrasts most with the ocean and the chair. The visual weight of the van on the lower left quadrant is balanced by the expanse of sky above.
Interpretation: The van’s placement, dark colors, and its windows framing the sky beyond seem intentional. The artist might be trying to say something about the stopping a journey when there is still more ahead. The open doors and chair indicate whoever was driving has stopped. Maybe they went to play in the ocean. Regardless, despite the vastness of the ocean and the sky above, the van can go no further.
Evaluation: This piece speaks to a longing for cessation, from work, relationships, our busy lives. I think it executes this emotion well. The linear style, with clean lines and smooth planes, encourages the viewer to take in the composition as a whole. I think that style matches the intent. The viewer is allowed to place themselves into the painting and to feel what it must be like in that moment.
My opinion: I like this piece. I would like to have a print of it in my home.
Art in general or just specifically AI art?
Edit: because the answer is pretty much the same
The creative choices from the human is what makes it art. … If the AI user doesn't respect the craft, then they don't make informed artistic choices. Hence the result is shit.
I’m not disagreeing with you on these points, but I think this is a simplistic and idealistic way of critiquing AI art. However, I do believe your criticisms have merit.
Again, I’ll write more on this later. Thank you for bringing up these points.
Idk, maybe I just don’t feel like arguing with you. I feel like you’re talking past my points anyway and making a lot of assumptions about what I’m bringing up. It’s just not worth my time. The language you’re using toward me seems very heated. Id rather not engage with you.
Lol ok big dog
Nah I’m not engaging with this. Come back when you you’re ready to act like a grown up.
Hey if you don’t want to be critiqued for things you share then don’t share them. But I wouldn’t be much of an art educator if I didn’t push people to make better art. Critique is for that. I get that you view this as a simple meme, but it is emulating a specific artistic style, so I’m judging it by that criteria. You don’t have to be an art critic or trained professional to learn critique.
I can give you a run down of why these images aren’t well executed. From the anatomy and perspective irregularities to the composition of the figures. All of that is what I’d do to a human made work anyway. Do you want me to comb through each image in that way? Maybe by doing so it can help you identify changes you can make to elevate the next AI assisted meme you create.
This deserves a more thorough response than the one I’m going to type now. I’ll come back to this later.
Basically though I want to use this discussion of AI, particularly its use in art making, as an avenue to talk about critiquing art. I’m not analyzing the technology used in the art making process nor the labor involved. I’m considering images made by AI that emulate or imitate other artistic work as “AI art.” And I’m chiefly concerning myself with critiquing the product, the AI art, from an artistic lens. It’s my belief that much of how AI is used results in art that isn’t very good.
I think it’s a funny idea for a meme. Just wish it was better executed.
I don’t think this meme is art at all.
That’s an interesting perspective. It does, again, seem like you’re using this thought as an excuse to not engage in critique of these images, from an artistic perspective at least. I would think a photographer would understand the value of critique. But I’m not going to litigate what is art in your eyes.
I’m not delineating was is and is not art. I’m talking about what constitutes good art from not good not. Our opinions can vary in that regard, but that doesn’t mean people cannot evaluate art based on some criteria, personal or otherwise.
I’d like to refocus the discussion of AI art away from ethical implementation, or even Marxist analysis of its use, to how the prevalence of AI art highlights a societal lack of art appreciation. I don’t mean appreciating the artists and their skills. I mean appreciation and understanding of what constitutes good art. I believe there’d be a lot less handwringing about all of it if everyone took an art class or two. I’m not trying to be chauvinistic about this. Well, maybe a little. I’m being an artistic experience chauvinist I guess.
My main contention is that AI art looks bad. I can walk you through why it looks bad if you want. But if you’re more concerned about making quick, bad-looking art for agiprop then I’m not gonna change your mind. And that’s fine.
And listen, I’m calling it bad art because these images are bad art. Art, especially produced in a specific style like the meme you posted, actually does have to follow some rules. If it doesn’t, or doesn’t circumvent those rules in a way that communicates intentionality, then it’s just not that good. Calling these images bad art isn't a critique of you as a person. It’s a critique of the quality of art you’ve presented.
I’m going to kindly ask you to treat the quality of AI art with seriousness and not use the excuses like “it’s just a meme.” I come at this issue with the perspective of not only being an artist but an art educator as well. I don’t mean to presume, but from reading your comments on the matter I don’t get the impression that you’ve spoken to that many artists about their perspective on AI art. I’d be happy to discuss it with you though! Honestly I think a more art education would only serve to elevate your posts.
Parenting Chat - 04/27 - 05/03
Thanks! I’ll look into that
Parenting Chat - 04/27 - 05/03
I gotta ask of our US parents, what are your plans for milk/cheese since the FDA has abandoned quality tests?
I think you know the answer to that.
I had a dream like that when I was little that I still remember too. I only had it the one time, but I’m not gonna forget the dream where there were rats in my bed.
I can relate. I had* a crush in college who periodically appears in dreams, along with the same intense feelings.
I adore the Noog. It is genuinely a beautiful place.
Maybe, just maybe, laypeople shouldn’t use the same clinical and/or medicalized language used by professionals who know what the hell they’re talking about to describe their own children.
Same energy as the parents I was talking to a few months ago saying they have a “male son.” Oh okay, I thought this was a parent-teacher conference, but apparently I’m speaking to a couple zoologists.

What's your recurring dream(s)?
Some people interpret their dreams as an exercise in self-discovery. Some let their dreams inspire them in the waking world. Others regard them more simply as a novelty of the human mind. Still more do a fourth or even a fifth thing I can’t think of (my list felt incomplete). Whatever your experience or opinions of dreams are, I think dreams are neat. We go to sleep and our brains hallucinate for a while and sometimes we remember it. I think we often forget how incredible that is.
If you’d be willing to share, I’d like to know about your recurring dreams.
::: spoiler Here’s mine:
I started having this dream in college. It used to happen more frequently, every couple of months. Lately it’s an annual affair.
I resolve into the dream, with naked understanding of how I got there and what I’m doing without ever being able to recall. Dreams are like that. I’m in a car. The car is full of other people. They could be my friends or family. I’m much younger than I am now, or I feel much y
This is not really advice about saving money per se, so this might not apply to you. Plus it’s very US specific.
In lieu of having money in an emergency fund, having access to better loan terms can be life saving — at least in the short term. One way of doing this is building “good credit” or repairing “bad credit.” The bigger your credit score number the better access to favorable loan terms you can get. So here’s the very general advice I have:
- Keep paying debts if you have them to the best of your ability. It doesn’t hurt to ask lenders for forbearance or debt forgiveness. Sometimes (rarely) it works.
- If you have credit cards, pay statement balances in full, if you’re able. If you don’t have any open lines of credit, get a secured credit card from a bank (this is essentially a debit card that pretends it’s a credit card).
- If you have debts that have gone to collections, either fight these collections or pay them. This will require a lot of time on the phone and being a bit confrontational.
The “how” of doing these things varies a lot. Feel free to PM me if you’d like assistance. And this goes without saying, but all of this very silly and no one should have to play this Calvinball style economy system, which is designed to keep you paying debts forever, but here we are.

Disposing of medication (CW: infant hospitalization)
A few weeks ago I disposed of the last of my 3yo’s heart medication. They don’t take anymore. I mean my partner and I haven’t given it to them in two years. It’s no longer part of their treatment. Their treatment plan, in fact, ended about two years ago. For all intends and purposes they have a clean bill of health. But the medication has been sitting in the back of the fridge, like a splitter that was never pulled out.
The liquid medication, Amiodarone, is a thick syrupy elixir. Our pharmacist said it was okay to dilute and flush it, which seemed uh…not good for the environment. Amiodarone is hard enough on the human body. When they were taking it, our then 8 month old couldn’t go out in the direct sunlight for more than a few minutes for risk of sun poisoning. Among other side effects to their eyes and liver. It is potent and costly and, given to an infant, inevitably ends up on your couch. Can’t imagine what it might do to a river system.
Our 3yo’s next cardiology appointment is

They took May 1st from us. Organize. Join the Homestarmy. Give 'em those 5 bucks.

YouTube Video
Click to view this content.

Community for Teachers/Educators
I’ve noticed over my short tenure here there are a few teachers on Lemmygrad. I’ve browsed the comm list before and haven’t found one specifically for teachers and people involved in educational systems.
Is there/should there be a comm like that?
I would love to have a place where educators could share resources, successes, and frustrations. I would not want it to devolve into an r/teachers hellhole. I have no idea no idea how to make one or even if that’s an option because of boomer brain. I’m not sure I want that responsibility either.

I wanna party with all the witches but I also wanna talk about about astronomy



Combat footage is killing my friendships
TLDR - My friends think r/combatfootage is totally fine and are offended when I point out it’s kind of fucked up. This isn’t an AITA post. I am the asshole, but at least I’m NOT a fascist.
I’ll be clear about what I think about the proliferation of combat footage forums like r/combatfootage and the myriad of duplicate communities on various fediverse instances. I find it abhorrent because of what it has done to my friends.
I have a very close group of friends who for the most part are fairly compassionate people. I love them with all my heart. We’ve helped each other for a lot, and they even helped me on my journey from being a rightwing libertarian to a democrat. While I continued to be radicalized by other events and communities online, they’ve stayed relatively the same, left leaning liberals. You know the type. They hate the republicans and will vote blue no matter who. They support the LGBTQ+ community, abortion rights, the recent rise in labor action in the US, and the Pales